Well I hit the post christmas sales and picked this guy up. So on with the show!

Energon Optimus Prime, this guy has been talked about for a while, Fatimus Prime, the "Dear god, I thought Armada was the worst!" Prime...well I can say I was pleasantly surprised.

Vehicle mode:

Just know in Japan, this is supposed to be a different character, Grand Convoy, so he has a completely differnt alt mode than the truck in Armada. He's a futureistic car carier. Although he carries his drones, it fits spy changers, the old mini bot cars (cliff jumper, beach comber, et al) and minicons in a pinch. The carrier has a base alt mode, but this is forgetable.

Now the cab form is neat. People have complaied on how the arms just lay back there. Well when you look at this closely, this was made on purpose. It's like the struts, or the break lines, in a real truck. The plastic is molded perfectly for this. There are 2 static minicon ports on the sides as well as the spark/energon crystal point on the right side. Also on the right side is the button to activate the 4 sounds (one for each drone). You can select each sound by sliding the switch on the back.

I like this vehicle. It's a neat idea, though I thought Ultra Magnus had the corner on the carrier market.
B+

Robot mode:

Easy Transformation. Swing the arms forward, fold legs down and fold the wheels into the back. Flip the "radar" dish up from the top of the cab and you'll see the head to flip up. I got the version with the mouth, but if you are a purist, the second wave will be sans mouth. Rotate arms into place, slid out fists, and unfold feet. You got yourself one misporportioned Prime! Now the I got to say, while this mode does have strengths, they are outshined by the flaw of the body. One thing is that he stands perfectly. He's on my desk right now, shaking as I type, but won't fall. He is also articulated very well. I found this comic that diplays this nicely. It's not mine, so don't flame me lol

You can see, this guy moves nicely, I hear they will relase a version simmilar to the super con of Armada Prime. I'm looking forward to it. Activate interlocks, Dynotherms connected... (aka superlink form)

Now the use of those drones...aka OP- 1 through 4. Call em 4 minicons who Op decided he had to keep lol, I like these guys, op 1 is a fire truck (with extending ladder and rotating turret in front), 2 a helicopter (spinning blade), 3 a drill (drill bit spins when rolling), and 4 a sub (umm...it's blue?). These become his legs and arms and can be combined in any form. Kind of like Ruination having a different form for each battle situation.

I find 3 and 4 are the best legs since 1 and 2 have fist to hold the gun. Though 3 makes a mean mele weapon (no fist just drill). I do admit I was thinking "form feet and legs" when putting this guy together. For the super link form take Prime, fold in the feet, and retract fists. Put arms out like a "T". The drones slide on perfectly. The "radar" dish folds over the head and you can open up the chest for the matrix. I actually don't like this because it hides the autbot symbols on the arms. I mean, this is Prime, and no autobot symbol visible?

Super mode is great though, I give it a solid A.

Grand Convoy is solid fun figure. Over all, A-

Reviewer	Dave
Date	December 26th 2003
Score	(9 out of 10)
Reads	4776
Link	Optimus cartoon

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